"What do you make of it?"
Juve shrugged his shoulders.
"Michel is an idiot. That house has two exits; one to the Boulevard, the other to waste ground that leads to the fortifications. The Superior, or Lady Beltham, goes there to change her dress, and then hastens to some prearranged meeting elsewhere. The house at Neuilly will bear watching."
XXIX
THROUGH THE WINDOW
"What a splendid fellow! One can count on him at any time. A friendship like his is rare and precious."
Fandor had just left Juve, and the detective could not help being strangely moved as he thought of the devotion shown him by the journalist.
The detective was still in his wheel chair; with a skilful turn he went back to the balcony and his post of observation.
Evening was coming on. After a fine day the sky had become leaden and overcast with great clouds: a storm was threatening. Juve swore.
"I shan"t see much this evening; this confounded Josephine is so sentimental that she loves dreaming in the gloaming at her window without lighting up. Devil take her!"
Juve had armed himself with his spy-gla.s.s; he apparently levelled it at Porte Maillot, and in that way he could see something of the movements of Josephine in the rooms opposite him.
"Flowers on the chimney and on the piano! Expecting her lover probably!"
Suddenly he started up in his chair.
"Ah! some one has rung her bell. She is going toward the entrance door."
A minute pa.s.sed; in the front rooms Juve no longer saw anyone. Josephine must be receiving a visitor.
Some minutes more went by; a heavy shower of rain came down and Juve was forced to leave his balcony.
When he resumed his watching he could not suppress an exclamation of surprise.
"Ah, if he would only turn! This cursed rain prevents me from seeing clearly what is afoot. The brute! Why won"t he turn! There, he has laid his bag on a chair, his initials must be on it, but I can"t read them.
Yet the height of the man! His gestures! It"s he, sure enough, it"s Chaleck!"
Juve suddenly abandoned his post of observation, propelled his chair to the back room of the suite and seized the telephone apparatus.
"h.e.l.lo! Give me the Prefecture. It is Juve speaking. Send at once detectives Leon and Michel to No. 33 C Boulevard Pereire South. They are to wait at the door of the house and arrest as they come out the persons I marked as numbers 14 and 15. Let them make haste."
"a.s.suredly Chaleck won"t leave at once if he has come to see Josephine; no doubt he has important things to say. Leon and Michel will arrive in time to nab him first and Josephine after. And to-morrow, when I have them handcuffed before me, it"s the deuce if I don"t manage to get the truth out of them."
Juve went back to his look-out.
"Oh, they seem very lively, both of them; the talk must be serious.
Josephine doesn"t look pleased. She seems to disagree with what Chaleck is saying. One would think he was giving her orders. No! she is down on her knees. A declaration of love! After Loupart and Dixon it"s that infernal doctor"s turn!"
Juve watched for a moment longer the young woman and the mysterious and elusive Chaleck.
"Ah! that"s what I feared! Chaleck is going and Leon and Michel haven"t come!"
Juve hesitated. Should he go down, rush to the Boulevard and try to collar the ruffian? That wasn"t possible. Juve lived on the fifth floor, so that he had one more story to get down than Chaleck, then there was the railway line between him and Josephine"s house. Chaleck would have ample time to disappear. But Juve rea.s.sured himself.
"Luckily he has left his hold-all, and if I mistake not, that is his stick on the chair. Therefore he expects to come back."
Powerless to act, Juve witnessed the exit of Chaleck, who soon appeared at the door of Josephine"s house and went striding off. Juve followed him with his eyes, intensely chagrined. Would he ever again find such a good opportunity of laying hands on the ruffian?
Chaleck vanished round the corner of the street, and Juve again took to watching Josephine! The young woman did not appear to be upset by her late visitor. She sat, her elbows on the table, turning with a listless finger the pages of a volume.
"Clearly he is coming back," thought Juve, "or he would not have left his things there. I shall nab him in a few days at latest."
Juve was about to leave his post of observation when he saw Josephine raise her head in an att.i.tude of listening to an indefinable and mysterious noise.
"What is going on?" Juve asked himself. "She cannot be already watching for Chaleck"s return."
Then Juve started.
"Oh! oh!"
He had just seen Josephine at a single bound spring toward the window.
The young woman gazed steadily in front of her, her arms outstretched in a posture of horror. She seemed in a state of abject terror. There was no mistaking her motions. She was panic-stricken, panting, trembling in all her limbs. Juve, who lost no movement of the hapless woman, felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead.
"What"s the matter with her? There is n.o.body in the room, I see nothing!
What can frighten her to that extent? Oh, my G.o.d!"
Forgetting all precautions, all the comedy he was preparing so carefully for the neighbour"s benefit, he sprang to his feet, deserting his wheel chair. His hands clenched on the rail of the balcony while spellbound by the sight he beheld, he leaned over the rail as if in a frantic desire to fling himself to the young woman"s help. Josephine had bestridden the sash of her window. She was now standing on the ledge, holding with one hand to the rail of her balcony and her body flung backwards as if mad with terror.
"What is happening? Oh, the poor soul!"
Josephine, uttering a desperate cry, had let go of the supporting rail and had flung herself into s.p.a.ce. Juve saw the young woman"s body spin in the air, heard the dull thud that it made as it crashed against the ground.
"It is monstrous!"
Juve beside himself tore down the stairs full tilt, pa.s.sed breathlessly the porteress, who seemed likely to faint at the sight of the headlong pace of the supposed paralytic.
He went round Boulevard Pereire, darted along the railway line, and, panting, got to the side of the ill-starred Josephine. At the sound of her fall and the cries she uttered people had flown to the windows, pa.s.sers-by had turned round: when Juve got there a ring of people had already formed round the unfortunate woman. The detective roughly pushed some of them aside, knelt down beside the body and put his ear to the chest.
"Dead? No!"
A faint groan came from the lips of the poor sufferer. Juve realised that by unheard-of luck, Josephine, in the course of her fall, had struck the outer branches of one of the trees that fringed the Boulevard. This had somewhat broken the shock, but her legs were frightfully broken and one of her arms hung lifeless.
"Quick!" commanded Juve. "A cab; take her to the hospital."
As soon as help was forthcoming, Juve, recalled to the duties of his profession, asked himself: